Thrive in Catastrophe - Chap 6

Chapter 6 Why Don’t You Give Him A Kiss?

The fallen aircraft hummed for a while, and eventually stopped.

Heine and Reeve stood in front of the cabin door, armed and ready to shoot whoever that came out from the door.

The cabin door slid open, and they were taken by surprise by the countless zombies that was swarming out from the cabin.

“Damn it——”

Mark drew out his daggers and started killing.

A few zombies ran towards Xiao Yan’s direction while letting out a low growl.

“Stand up and run! Hurry!” Reeve shouted at Xiao Yan.

With death before his eyes, not knowing where his strength came from, Xiao Yan hauled the heavy box with his left hand and bashed it into the zombie’s face before him. Then with a crack sound, the zombie’s brain juice burst out from its skull. But in the next second, another zombie was in front of his face.

Xiao Yan had no weapon nor the ability to fight, so all he could do was stare at the zombie opening its mouth that was about to split apart, revealing its yellowish teeth.

As Xiao Yan was about to shut his eyes and accept his fate, a sharp blade pierced through the zombie’s wide-opened mouth and stopped at the position that was less than one centimetre away from Xiao Yan’s nose tip.

His heart nearly stopped.

The sound of blade drawing out penetrated Xiao Yan’s nerves. The zombie sprawled to the ground, dead.

The darkness was slashed apart, and what lies at the end of Xiao Yan’s sight, was Heine with a nonchalant look on his face.

This man has unhesitantly pierced into the depths of Xiao Yan’s thoughts and thoroughly conquering it. Xiao Yan could not help but to be in awe of him.

Behind Heine, was a field of the zombies’ remains.

In less than a minute, the zombies that swarmed out from the aircraft has been completely cleared up.

Mark kicked off the cabin door and shouted loudly, “Boss——”

Heine turned away, lowering his eyes, as though Xiao Yan meant nothing to him.

The two pilots from the Tides Organisation had committed suicide.

“Xiao Yan, are you okay?” Reeve rushed over to Xiao Yan, knowing that his injuries were no trivial by looking at his bloodless face.

“……Where’s Captain White?”

Xiao Yan had not seen Captain White since the sudden assault.

Reeve pursed her lips and looked to aside. When Xiao Yan turned to follow her sight line, he saw Captain White lying under a tree, face covered in blood.

Clutching his shoulder, Xiao Yan stumbled towards the tree and realised that a bullet penetrated Captain White’s brain.

He placed a hand on Captain White’s neck. His body was still warm, but his pulse had stopped.

Head lowered, Xiao Yan felt a lump in his throat.

This was his first time to experience the death of his comrade right before his eyes.

Xiao Yan who has been living in a sheltered life in Charles, has now breathe the unique smell of blood. It has a stench similar to metal rust and despite being still warm in his hand, he felt a bone-chilling cold within the depths of his mind.

“Xiao Yan, we have to rush over to Base 14 now.”

Xiao Yan nodded quietly.

“And we still have to deliver the raw uranium back as soon as possible… so……”

“So we’d have to leave his body here,” Xiao Yan took the box in Captain White’s hand, and staggered a little when standing up, “Reeve, let’s go.”

He was dead. Anything done after that would be redundant, but the raw uranium in their hands are especially valuable to Charles.

Xiao Yan gave Captain White’s remain a military salute. As he turned around, he saw Heine tighten his fingers, hand raised to his brow, and the moment he lowered his hand was as though he severed all pasts, but exceptionally earnest at the same time.

Mark and Reeve did the same.

No matter how much Special Task Forces disdained technical soldiers, nevertheless, they respect every lost lives of their compatriots from the bottom of their heart.

“Let’s go,” Reeve took the box from Xiao Yan’s hand as Xiao Yan trailed behind them strenuously.

Reeve turned back to check on Xiao Yan from time to time, for fear he will collapse all of a sudden.

“Hey, Reeve—— If you’re so worried about him, why don’t you give him a kiss!”

Mark exclaimed in a joking manner whereas his expression showed a hint of seriousness.

Every single Special Force soldiers were injected with X-virus. This was also where their inhuman mobility and healing ability come from.

One kiss, was sufficient for the X-virus, which has lost the ability to replicate after being metabolised in Reeve’s body, to enter Xiao Yan’s body and temporarily increased the healing ability of his body.

Reeve let out a sigh and came before Xiao Yan. She placed down the boxes and before her fingers came in contact with Xiao Yan’s jaw, a person walked over to Xiao Yan’s side and lifted him on the shoulder.

The movement was crisp and undefiable.

“Ah——-” Xiao Yan nearly fainted from pain with the sudden movement.

“Boss——” Reeve called out in surprise.

Mark who was standing a few steps away, also had a look where he had choked on his own saliva.

Only then Xiao Yan realised that the one carrying him was Heine Burton!

He lifted a box in each of his hands and proceeded in a steady pace.

Xiao Yan, however, was suffering from living hell. His was sick to his stomach, and his dangling arms was jerking his fractured shoulder on every steps taken. The feeling of bone piercing into his muscles made his teeth chatter.

Every minute, every second, was torture.

Reeve stared at Xiao Yan in sympathy but she could do nothing.

At last, Xiao Yan passed out from the insufferable pain.

By the time Xiao Yan regain consciousness, he felt a sensation of weightlessness. And the moment his crushed shoulder touches a surface, his eyes snapped open immediately.

He then found himself in a place similar to a tunnel with a blinding light before him, stimulating his brain.

The doctors and medics encircled him and lifted him onto a surgical table.

He caught a glimpse of Heine leaving the room, as condescending as usual with a hint of disdainfulness, as though Xiao Yan was nothing more than an ant and will eventually decay and turn into the mud under his feet.

Xiao Yan’s right collarbone and shoulder blade were close to comminuted fracture. He could not help but to believe that Heine did not solely took him as a stepping board, but more as the revenge for that accidental kiss.

However, when Xiao Yan heard that the apprentices who chose to stay behind in the aircraft were all killed by the Tides Organisation, he rejoiced quietly.

At least, he is alive.

For times, how lives go are depended on the choices made. This time, his choice was risky, but wise.

The most talented part of Xiao Yan’s brain is the ability to filter out all negative incidents that he faced. Despite being a night that most people would usually be restless, he was sound asleep within half a minute.

The medical technology nowadays are highly advance where dismembered limbs could be joined back through nerves reconnection. Hence, the comminuted fracture of Xiao Yan’s was only considered as a minor problem.

Three days later, Xiao Yan’s shoulder has fully recovered. While he was bedridden these few days, he had heard some rumours revolving around the Base 14 commander Lieutenant Colonel Raven and Heine Burton.

Heine went off to rescue twelve B ranked apprentices personally. However, not only did he failed to save them, he even failed to protect the only officer in the team, Captain White.

The incident has caused discussions among the people in Base 14, believing that the death of those students was due to the misconduct of Special Task Forces who did not take their lives seriously.

In truth, Heine has successfully breakthrough the assault from the Tides Organisation and delivered the raw uranium back to the base without fail, whereas, they were given the mission to rescue Xiao Yan and the others on short notice. Even if complaints were filed with the Military Discipline Office, who else would investigate on Heine Burton?

Lieutenant Colonel Raven’s adjutant Captain Will coincidentally happened to be the cousin of Captain White. The death of his cousin hit Will hard where he decided to send a rhetorical report back to Charles.

However, Xiao Yan, who had survived from the catastrophe, haven’t got the slightest interest in all these conflicts. And being the only survivor of his research team, he was now assigned to another team by the commander of Base 14.

His only wish now was to spend the remaining days in the base in peace and then back to Charles.

As Xiao Yan was leaning on bed, listening to music, he received an order from Lieutenant Colonel Raven to have him come forward to the command center and conduct an after action report.

Oh no……

Xiao Yan held his head in his hands in distress. “Oh no, here comes the trouble!”

He neaten his uniform and straighten himself up before following the secretary into Lieutenant Colonel Raven’s office.

Lieutenant Colonel Raven looked like a man in his late thirties. He did not have any noble achievements, but his ability to defend and uphold this age-old base for many years has proven him to be a staid and respectable person.

A dainty and exquisite cup was placed before him, steaming.

When Xiao Yan gave him a salute, he returned him with a small nod and took a took a sip of his tea. Beside him stood his adjutant, Captain Will.

“What made you choose to leave the aircraft and proceeded on foot to my base with the Special Task Forces?”

Without greetings of any sort, Lieutenant Colonel Raven went straight into questioning. His eyes were telling Xiao Yan that he wants to get some specific information from him.

“Because I agreed to the Special Task Forces’ judgement then.”

“Judgement? In a perilous situation back then? Did you not know that once you left the base, an aircraft with a strong bulkhead would be much safer than the outside world?”

Xiao Yan shook off his lassitude. All this time, he had known that Special Task Forces and Central Academy of Science did not get along well.

Special Force soldiers were resentful of technical soldier’s quick success in the military when they do not have the need to go through any military training or some even have not seen a zombie in their whole life. On the other hand, most technical soldiers were contemptuous of Special Force soldiers and perceiving them as no more than zombie scavengers, and that their future in military are nothing like technical soldiers.

But all of these have got nothing to do with Xiao Yan.

Every dutiful soldiers, no matter their ranks or their units, Xiao Yan respects them from the bottom of his heart. And now, he did not want to be involved into the political dispute between Special Task Forces and the academy.

“Lieutenant Colonel, during then, our supply platform has already been seized by the Tides Organisation. They shot a guided missile at our aircraft and after we got rid of it, the aircraft was forced to land due to the overheat of the engine. It is believed that the raw uranium materials were their aim. If the rescue unit of Base 14 failed to arrive before the Tides Organisation, not only will we lose the raw uranium, all of us may have been annihilated as well. Thus, Colonel Heine Burton had made the decision to walk over to Base 14, bringing along the uranium. And through my own analysis, I have concluded that his decision was a wiser choice than to remain in the aircraft.”

Lieutenant Colonel Raven folded his arms on his chest, looking at Xiao Yan coldly.

Xiao Yan was unperturbed, without a slightest waver on his face.

In the end, the adjutant beside Lieutenant Colonel Raven lost his patience and grabbed Xiao Yan forward by his collar.

“You’re lying! You’re the only one who survived in your team! It’s Heine Burton! It’s all because he did not take the technical soldiers’ lives seriously!”

His eyes were bloodshot. He grinded his teeth in anger as though he was going to eat Xiao Yan alive.

“I’m sorry, Captain, what I said was the truth.”

“Truth? What is truth? Heine Burton said White was with all of you when he was delivering the raw uranium to the base. Are you going to tell me Heine Burton couldn’t even protect merely two technical soldiers? This is dereliction of duty! He simply didn’t thought of bringing White back alive!”

Xiao Yan stared at the face features of the adjutant and found that he bared a slight resemblance to Captain White. It seemed that the rumour saying Captain Will and Captain White are cousins was true.

“Will! He’s still a student, not a soldier,” Lieutenant Colonel Raven frowned.

Captain Will finally let go of Xiao Yan’s collar.

“That’s why he’s not worthy to be a soldier,” Captain Will glared at Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan breathed out a quiet sigh. Yet, this subtle action has caught Lieutenant Colonel Raven’s attention.

“Why are you sighing?”